INCOMPAS News -- August 12, 2024

Vol. 20, No. 31

August 12, 2024

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INCOMPAS Comments on

FCC AI in Robocalls NPRM

Last week, the FCC adopted an NPRM that will protect consumers from the potential abuses of artificial intelligence (AI) in robocalls and robotexts and will offer a path for positive uses of AI in the voice networks that will help consumers.

“There are many potential benefits of AI use in the voice networks, and the FCC’s work in this docket to support and enable such use is important. Promoting policies that will encourage the use of AI tools that can help filter out sophisticated spam and phishing schemes will help consumers avoid costly scams," said Christopher L. Shipley, Executive Director of Public Policy for INCOMPAS.

"IP interconnection will be critical to any effort to conduct real-time monitoring for fraudulent or AI-generated robocalls and robotexts," he added. "To that end, the FCC should undertake a review of the importance of IP interconnection to the success of the FCC’s efforts, and the agency must remain mindful of the significant investments required of voice providers in their delivery of AI-enabled applications.”

NTIA Releases 2023 Federal Broadband Funding Report

The NTIA released a new report and dashboard analyzing federal broadband investments in Fiscal Year 2022 (October 2021-September 2022) reported by federal agencies.

The 2023 Federal Broadband Funding Report was developed in accordance with the ACCESS BROADBAND Act, which requires NTIA to submit an annual report to Congress. This year’s report highlights trends in federal investments to expand high-speed Internet service and summarizes steps NTIA is pursuing to assess the economic impact of high-speed Internet expansion programs. This dashboard:

Includes spending data from 12 agencies across 70 federal high-speed Internet programs
Reports Tribal broadband funding
Includes data by federal programs at the state level
Breaks out funding by appropriated (budgeted by Congress), obligated (awarded for spending by the program) and outlays (spent by the program)
Highlights trends across three years of data since the ACCESS BROADBAND Act was enacted

Senate Report Addresses Broadband, USF Reform

The Senate Appropriations Committee released a report accompanying the FY 2025 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill, which was approved on August 1, 2024, and included $448 million for the FCC. The report provides committee recommendations on certain issues, including broadband mapping, USF reform, RDOF and robocalls.

The committee, among other things, encouraged the FCC to consider funding under the BEAD Program in determining how best to use universal service funds in addressing service gaps.

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